Israeli Labor Party for instance.
Rabbi Kahane represents
But they apparently brought few people. The main body of the demonstrators were people from radical backgrounds in Central and Eastern Europe who were forced to settle in the Zionist colony by forces beyond their control. There were
The most dramatic note in the July general elections in Israel was that for the first time an open advocate of driving out all the Arabs remaining on Zionist-ruled territories won a seat in parliament.
At the same time, this sinister figure gained parliamentary immunity for organizing racist rabble-rousing and gang attacks on the Arab communities. So, Rabbi Meir Kahane began immediately to increase the temperature of Zionist politics.
also a number of younger people who looked like the hard-core of US anti-Vietnam war demonstrators.
This contingent did reflect some important contradictions in the settler community, the prèsence of old radical forces and a ferment among the youth made possible by bourgeois democracy.
Gerry FOLEY
In August, when I was in Israel, and Jewish towns, you can see groups of Arab since, Rabbi Meir Kahane has provided a men and boys standing about. Everyone focus for the deepening crisis of Zionism.
Indeed, better than any other single event his rise has highlighted the crisis and the degeneration of Zionist ideology, sym-
Jewish society, from casual and marginal jobs in Tel Aviv. On the outskirts of the in Israel calls them the "slave markets." There is no ideological motivation behind this term, no denunciation; it is just a that everyone did not yet represent a powerful and growing current in the Jewish community.
In the same period, momentum began to build for a demonstration against Kahane at the opening of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. It was held about two weeks later on the sidewalk of the road running past the hill in West Jerusalem bolizing the fading of those elements that obvious. reflected the search of oppressed Jews for a solution to their problems and the growing predominance of racist and reactionary attitudes based on the disinheritrepression of the Arab people of Palestine. In fact, as a founder of the Jewish Defense League in the US, an organization aimed mainly against Blacks, Kahane is a by-product of American
Historical Zionism, moreover, was a mainly secular ideology, offering release from the suffocating religious rules and outstanding representative of a decaying Zionism, poisoned by its basic contradiction - the scheme of liberating the Jews through an alliance with imperialism and by crushing another people - is both a religious and racist fanatic.
On the basis of the claim that the Jews have a divine right to supremacy in Palestine, the American-born religious leader has no qualms about referring to Arabs in rallies as "dogs" and organizing pogromist gangs to attack Arab settlements.
By its nature, Kahane's brand of rabble rousing requires provocations. Imafter his election, he announced his intention to open a "Palestinian emigration office" in Um AlFahum, the largest Arab town near the Zionist core settlements.
In response to the threat, the town leaders called a joint Arab-Jewish rally.
the first weekend in July, just after I arrived in the coun-
Although Um Al-Fahum is only about an hour's trip from Tel Aviv by bus, it ren hills still inhabited by Arabs, no doubt because they had little to attract
Today, these Arab mountain towns live mainly from the crumbs of the International Viewpoint 17 September 1984
I was struck in fact that there had been so little trickle down of Jewish economic development town in an area so near the biggest city of the Zionist settlement.
Tel Aviv as a whole has a West European standard of living, poorer than the best off countries but prosperous look than Britain. northern part of the city in particular, you could think you were in a middle-
But in Um Al-Fahum, foul smelling water runs down the middle of poorly maintained roads. Skin inflammations are common among the children. people in general have an undernourished look - notably thinner, smaller and more gnarled than the Jews.
The town government is in the hands of the Communist Party. In the July elections, the CP-led Democratic Front got 46% of the vote here, and the Progressive List 37%; in all, 83% for the non-Zionist left slates. The CP has a long tradition here, but it has accomodated itself to the backward society, little attempt to change it. On the other hand, it dões use the method of mass mobilization. And the demonstration against Kahane was a good example.
The roughly two thousand Jewish demonstrators walked into the town through serrried ranks of local people and shouting "Welcome, Welcome," and Shalom! [which means both "peace" and "greetings"]. Huge banners carried the same slogans.
In Israeli conditions, the presence of even a small number of Jewish demonstrators was important to the security of the local people. genuinely enthusiastic. and cultural gap was vast. I noticed, for example, little Arab girls surreptitiously where the Knesset stands. This protest had very wide sponsorship, including from organizations of the Labor Party. But they did not mobilize many people, although the demonstration of about 2,000 was considered respectable for Jerusalem on a workday.
Even the mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy although after public He had said before that he not take part because he had heard that the demonstration was being organized by the Matzpen group, as the section of the Fourth International in Israel is generally known the Revolutionary munist League played an important role. They were well regarded as reliable and capable organizers of mass demonstrations, and on this occasion, as well as even moderate forces in the Jewish community were ready to accept
The RCL is also well known as the most intransigent opponent of
Kollek made his statement, he whom he was talking about. Nonetheless, he ended up coming to the rally as the keynote speaker.
The RCL had fought to make the demonstration against racism rather than against fascism. They argued that Kahane was a result of the logic of Zionism, linked to its institutions by a thousand underground roots, and not the product of a fundamental crisis of capitalism, as
The official theme of the demonstration was opposition to racism. the Labor Party contingents pushed antifascist slogans, and they also apparently came most easily to the lips of most of the demonstrators. Thus, the main chant was Ha-Fashism lo yavor ("Fascism Shall Not Pass").
framework offered the left
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ISRAEL
and liberal Zionist speakers ample room for self-satisfied declarations about how antagonistic the Jewish people were to fascism and how alien it supposedly was to what they claimed were the generous and humane values of Zionism. This gave